Choco Mimi 1
June 15, 2009
This was some seriously cute stuff. The cute artwork overload reminded me a lot of Junko Mizuno in a way, except this was way more flowery where Junko Mizuno is usually disturbing. Strangely, the girls in this series are in 8th grade, but it seems like a much younger girl is probably the target audience (which is appropriate enough given that this was a VizKids title). The format for the story was 4-panel gag strips mixed with 1-2 page comics. The jokes center around Choco and Mimi, two best friends, one is serious and cute, one is ditzy and cute. Choco also has a crush on a “cool” boy nicknamed Andrew, and later, a cute boy named Mumu is introduced that seems like a rival/romantic interest for Mimi, but kind of isn’t. All four are friends. There’s also a teacher that hounds Mimi. There are also various pets.
Interspersed throughout the book are character profiles, side stories, and copious fashion tips for every occasion based on the individual styles of Choco and Mimi. There’s also a sticker sheet. All of these are pretty nice extras for a book aimed at little girls.
The jokes are a strange mix of kind of funny, no joke at all, and an occasional awesome joke. I was laughing sometimes, and I kind of liked the book for what it was, a collection of gag strips for little girls about two girls being friends. Their friendship is never on shaky ground, and the overall mood is a very positive one. I wasn’t all that interested in fashion, but it’s probably something I would have liked in grade scale based on the cuteness factor alone. I wouldn’t have LOVED it, but I probably would have liked it all the same.
And with no overarching plot or direction, gag strips and fashion tips are about all I can comment on. If the intended recipient likes cute, fashion, pets, friends, and gags, they’ll probably like this.
This was a review copy provided by Viz.
June 16, 2009 at 8:11 am
[...] 1 of Blank Slate (i heart manga) Michelle Smith on vol. 1 of Brilliant Blue (Manga Recon) Connie on vol. 1 of Choco Mimi (Slightly Biased Manga) Dave Ferraro on A Drifting Life (Comics-and-More) Isaac Hale on vol. 4 of [...]
June 28, 2009 at 2:17 am
Nice to see a review on this manga. I used to read it when I was 14~16 years old in the magazine it is published in. I think I loved the gags in the best :3
There is kind of a plot I guess, more characters get introduced in the upcoming volumes.
June 28, 2009 at 4:26 am
I did like it for what it was, and I can see it being really cool for the target audience (maybe I’m getting too old, I think I guessed the readers to be younger than they actually are/were).
It’s good that a plot gets introduced later. I thought it was pretty good for a gag strip, but it seems sad to read it in a book like this when it was originally intended to be read in a magazine with other things and not 200 pages at once. With a plot, it’ll make reading it in a book more fun, I think.
July 9, 2009 at 10:53 am
Honestly, I did not like this manga at all. Yes it was “cute” but it sends some pretty bad messages to kids.
July 9, 2009 at 2:33 pm
You mean about materialism and being greedy and lazy? True, but I feel like they were okay in this context because of the gag-type nature of the series. None of it was very serious, and I don’t think there’s much harm in a 4th or 5th grader emulating, say, some of the fashion stuff shown here, since it’s not really emphasizing brands or anything like that. It’s like a lesser version of that genre of middle grade/young adult fiction that has sprung up lately.
July 23, 2010 at 4:43 pm
why isnt chocomimi in any website reading manga website?